Dec 28, 2017

The Case To Recall James Lankford For His Tax Bill Con (Or A General Debunking Of Lankford's Tax Bill Lies)

Background:
1. Ronald Reagan's Policies Began The Destruction Of The Middle Class & The Constitution
2. Daily Show On GOP's Trickle Down Economics: The Republicans Economic Con Is Just The Already Debunked "Supply Side Economics" From The 80s (i.e. Reverse Robin Hood Economics Of Stealing From the People To Line Their Pockets Like "Nobles" In Monarchies)
3. Article:Supply Side Economics: Do Tax Rate Cuts Increase Growth and Revenues and Reduce Budget Deficits ? Or Is It Voodoo Economics All Over Again?
4. Economics Encyclopedia: Reaganomics by William A. Niskanen (Note: Reagan had to increase taxes to deal with the bad effects of supply-side/trickle-down economics )
5. A General Debunking & Expose Of The GOP's Tax Bill Con

This post debunks this tweet of James Lankfords in particular;

You'll notice that the letter is all about how corpoate tax cuts are our salvation (despite this being disproven under Reagan, see links in background above);

"Ask five economists," as the Edgar Fiedler adage goes, "and you'll get five different answers." {Editor: This is a Nixon economist, appropriately enough)
...
The enactment of a comprehensive overhaul – complete with a lower corporate tax rate – will ignite our economy with levels of growth not seen in generations. A twenty percent statutory rate on a permanent basis would, per the Council of Economic Advisers, help produce a GDP boost "by between 3 and 5 percent." As the debate delves into deficit implications, it is critical to consider that $1 trillion in new revenue for the federal government can be generated by four- tenths of a percentage in GDP growth.
Sophisticated economic models show the macroeconomic feedback generated by the TCJA will exceed that amount – more than enough to compensate for the static revenue loss.
We firmly believe that a competitive corporate rate is the key to an economic engine driven by greater investment, capital stock, business formation, and productivity – all of which will yield more jobs and higher wages. Your vote throughout the weeks ahead will therefore put more money in the pockets of more workers.
Supporting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will ensure that those workers – those beneficiaries – are American.

Note - The letter signed by "economists" didn't have their affiliation (probably on purpose). I was able to trace a few to the Kochs who James Lankford, and the rest of the GOP, get alot of thier funding from;


Sincerely,
James C. Miller III, Former OMB Director, 1985-88 (Republican from the Reagan years)

Wayne T. Brough, FreedomWorks Foundation (Koch/Donor Funded)
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum (Republican from the Bush years)
Brian Stuart Wesbury, Joint Economic Committee (Republican?)

Their entire "sophisticated" economic model rest on the faulty assumption that this won't start a reduction in corporate taxes in other countries leaving us with nothing but the increased deficit that used to be the Republican talking point before they had enough power to show who they really are;

Trump Just Kicked off a Global Tax War Other countries have launched a "race to the bottom" to undermine new U.S. corporate tax cuts.

Before Trump even signed the new tax law, there were troubling signs that it is the first shot in a global tax war that threatens working people and the public pension plans that sustain them in old age.
The Trump bill, which reads like a wish list for Goldman Sachs and its clients, has already triggered an aggressive “race to the bottom” in international corporate tax rates, rules and regulations. It is the exact opposite of his campaign promise to help the middle class.
What the mainstream American news has failed to notice are the global responses, including:
...
Trump and his sycophants claim that the corporate tax favors will more than pay for themselves. They assert that the big cuts in corporate tax rates and other favors for business will prompt much more U.S. economic growth, with many new jobs and higher wages. Wishful thinking is the response of numerous economists who are not on the Trump/Goldman Sachs payroll.
Thus the assertion that this bill lead lead to an economic boost;


... is outdated economics. We probably won't even get the slight growth forecasters had predicted;

Lets begin with a very (overly) polite debunking of the "supply side"/"trickle down economics" the GOP is pushing from one of the economic hacks of the Reagan era;

'Laffer Curve' economist on Senate's new tax bill Smerconish Former Reagan adviser Arthur Laffer, father of supply-side economics, on whether the new GOP tax bill's $1.47 trillion debt can 'pay for itself.'Source: CNN


Notes:

Smerconish points out the Sam Brownback did what the laffer curve recommends and "it didn't work out so well"

Reagan had to increase taxes to deal with the bad effects of the Laffer curve

Corporations are not suffering in our economy only wages are stagnant (wages is not something that was addressed in the bill and since an increase in wages improves the economy through the multiplier effect, really, nothing good for the economy was done in this bill)

Smerconish ends with "I hope you right cause we have a 20 trillion collar debt and we can't afford to increase it by another trillion"

Don't believe Republicans who say they care about debt After pushing fiscal austerity under President Obama, stalling the recovery, Republicans abandoned debt concerns to pass their tax bill. Duration: 5:39


Related Info On James Lankford



After all these lies and deceit, now they want to pretend to be a political party of a democratic nation (that ship has sailed);


GOP gives 'middle finger' to Democratic process As Trump advisers predict a 2018 midterm "bloodbath," Republicans are now talking about bipartisanship. Congressional expert Norm Ornstein says it's an "absurd" suggestion after the tax bill "middle finger." Neera Tanden and Charlie Cook also join Ali Velshi. Duration: 12:56



The GOP Tax Bill Is Social Darwinism in Action - Republicans are reviving a vicious theory that the rich are inherently moral and the poor worthless.


The Republican "tax reform" bill passed by the United States Senate during the late-night hours last Friday is evil. It has no redeeming social value. It takes money and resources from those who have the least in to further subsidize the rich and corporations. It will worsen those problems its proponents claim it will solve. It is a nightmare. Republicans and others who support this legislation have revealed once again that they lack any human decency or wisdom or sense of civic responsibility.
This evil is facilitated by an extreme rightward turn in American society that has made normal and healthy politics all but impossible.
This evil will kill people and increase human misery so the idle rich and other plutocrats can have even more money. This statement is no exaggeration. It is a plain fact: The Republican tax bill will raise taxes on the poor and working classes in order to give the very richest American hundreds of billions of dollars. This is a clear statement of social and political priorities: The amount of money gifted to the rich by Republicans is so large it could have paid for debt-free college and universal health care.
This evil also reveals a moral and ethical rot. The Republican Party and Donald Trump's desperate desire to win a legislative victory at any cost was more important than being responsible public servants.
This evil is empowered by a party, a president and a right-wing movement that feels nothing but contempt for the very idea of democracy. The United States is in extreme peril. Moreover, the evil of the Republicans' "tax reform" bill is not a result of happenstance, accident or coincidence. It is an outgrowth of a much deeper malevolent ideology.
Republicans from the post-civil rights era to the age of Trump have increasingly been in thrall to "Social Darwinism" and the 19th-century English economist Thomas Malthus. In this paradigm, the real value of individual human beings (and societies) is determined by their economic productivity and financial value as decided by capitalism. This cruel vision treats human beings almost like animal livestock; "social betters" engineer certain outcomes to cull the herd so the most "valuable" and "productive" are nurtured and protected. All others are viewed as parasites who should be removed, exterminated or bred out of existence.
Writing at openDemocracy, sociologists Margaret Somers and Fred Block explain that in this view of human existence, a "free market society" consists of two opposing classes or "races": workers and property owners. While the latter were seen to embody "the high moral character of Enlightenment rationality," the working classes were seen as "motivated only by base instincts."
Then, as now, these two views of humanity — one noble and elevated, and the other biologized and crassly sexualized — conveniently supported a harsh set of social policies that aimed to abolish government assistance to the "undeserving" poor, while preserving and enhancing the privileges accorded to their "deserving" betters.
These ideas can be traced back to to the "anti-welfare zealotry" of an 18th-century clergyman named Joseph Townsend and also (especially) to Malthus, one of the founders of classical economics. Both, write Somers and Block, "advocated for an end to 'poor relief' in favor of exposing the unemployed to the harsh disciplines of the market."


Conclusions: I think a good case is developing for recalling James Lankford from the Senate for lying and betraying the People of Oklahoma & The United States. Of course, the case for recalling Inhofe with his half a million dollars in bribes to push his climate change hoax con (amougnst others) is even bigger but he has been conning his base for longer and his half a million a year suggests he's sown em up tight. Tom Coburn, with his in your face hypocrisy concerning veterans (holding up a bill to prevent vet suicide 'because he could' as a 'demonstration for all to learn from'- denying veterans healthcare is a standard GOP tactic, same for 9/11 first responders [unless they read this]) , was the guy who LITERALLY gave James Lankford his seat after voting against making insider trading accountability (clearly indicating he used insider knowledge to make money while Senator, i.e. 

  • How can James Lankford be honorable? Yes, he's starting slow and building up his base with a more intelligent argument than Inhofe or Coburn (till now) but how long can this last? Already he voted for a bill that he didn't read - knowing full well that it went against the false word he gave when campaigning & politicking about not raising the deficit (they call it "fiscal responsibility"). Kochs pay for his campaign & personal marketing (the people vote for but do not fund this guy but they watch Koch funded adds so they can't be blamed for falling for such a big con). One could argue that James Lankford is a fool and doesn't know that the Kochs & the GOP intend to go after medicare and social security as a way to "address the deficit" but I don't think he is a fool. As a former reagan advisor explains; New Republican tax plan explodes the deficit for a purpose Bruce Bartlett, former Ronald Reagan domestic policy adviser, talks with Joy Reid about the expected fallout from the new tax plan and the Republican strategy to blow up the deficit with tax cuts for the rich so they can later argue a need to slash benefits to address the deficit. Duration: 7:41





In fact, I think the Kochs (or their political campaign marketing staff, whoever they are) TELL Lankford what to do for his con to keep his base intact and growing (so he too can make half a million a year like Inhofe). Problem with Lankfords strategy is that his base is more educated than most GOP voters so he has to be smart in his cons. In other words, Lankford will say anything BUT the truth as he is in too deep no matter what scientific facts tell us. The fact that Lankford will start dodging with more sophisticated lies (which I will periodically debunk here) will be evidence enough of his treason.

A more complete debunking of GOP misinformation on economics can be found here:

GOP Economics

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